Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, totally worn out, shouting "Wow...What a Ride!"

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Making Changes

In 2012 when we bought the rv and truck we knew if we liked this lifestyle upgrading would be in our future. Well we love the lifestyle and all the it brings to our lives, a sense of freedom and being in control, to some extent, of our future. Over the years Dave's work has had numerous layoffs which we have thankfully made it through, but we never know when that could change, without the house we would almost welcome a layoff.  We've always known we wanted to travel in our retirement but until our trip home from Key West in February of 2012 we hadn't figured out how we would accomplish that. With the purchase of our first rv and pull truck we have found the direction we want to take our life, we also know the equipment we have needs to be upgraded. We want a little more room in the rv and know our gas truck is at it's limit, we've had long discussions on whether we wanted a motorhome or another 5th wheel. While motor homes are nice we keep coming back to 5th wheels and their variety of floor plans and versatility.

With that decision made I decided to let the fingers do the walking at the local car dealers, last Sunday I came upon a 2012 Chevy 3500 HD DRW with less than 10K in mileage, the price was good if they would give us a decent trade in. Monday we headed to the dealer to take a look. Three hours later we had negotiated a deal we were all happy with so on Tuesday we took our GMC in and left it with them to have our hitch moved over. Friday morning we got the call the Chevy was ready so we headed back to finalize the sale, it was so nice of them to let us put everything on the credit card, we'll get a bunch of money back next month on our cash back card. The truck had never been towed with, one owner who decided it was more truck than he needed, so now we're ready to go anywhere. Just have to figure out what lanes to get into when we get to truck stops-any advice would be appreciated.


















We have plans to attend the Houston RV show the first weekend of February, as our friend Mark would say Dave is cringing. Just yesterday was the first time I heard Dave change it from "Faye wants a bigger rv" to "we want a bigger rv", whatever happens there we're ready.

Until next time...
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14 comments:

  1. Jessica RikerJanuary 11, 2014 at 10:56 AM

    Congratulations!! Beautiful truck!

    A lot of people are braver than us but we always go where the big trucks go when we are fueling up, and always to truck stops. Have read too many horror stories about people pulling the back wall, or their a/c, or something else, off their rigs from misjudging the heights of the roof at fuel stops.

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    1. Jessica RikerJanuary 11, 2014 at 10:57 AM

      PS Can't wait to see your blog after you go to the rv show!

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    2. Faye N DaveJanuary 12, 2014 at 7:24 AM

      I always would shudder when we had to fuel up with the rig behind us, now hopefully it will be a little less stressful.

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 11, 2014 at 7:43 PM

    How exciting. With the diesel fuel - opt for truck stops but go inside and pay and let them know you are not a semi (taxes). Use Chevron whenever possible and don't go for cheap gas. Our turbo blew a couple of years ago near Cottonwood AZ and this is what our mechanic recommended.
    Have fun at the RV show....always a fun time. I never tire of running through new rigs. Take photos!

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  3. John and CarolJanuary 11, 2014 at 8:19 PM

    Congratulations! We love our Chevy 3500HD DRW diesel. And we love full-timing. We usually try to get fuel before hooking the truck to the RV, then only drive 200 to 250 miles. If we get 10 mpg, we can go 350 miles in a day. Plenty for us.

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    1. Faye N DaveJanuary 12, 2014 at 7:34 AM

      Thanks, we usually try to limit our driving too but I know there will be days when we have to push it.

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  4. Gail HouleJanuary 11, 2014 at 8:24 PM

    Congrats on the new truck! Can hardly wait to see what happens next :)

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  5. ErinJanuary 11, 2014 at 10:23 PM

    Congratulations ... methinks there might be an upgraded RV coming along soon after the Houston RV show. We have friends who are going this year, and we considered driving up from here, but visiting the show will more than likely have to wait for another year.

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    1. ErinJanuary 11, 2014 at 10:24 PM

      PS. Pilot/Flying J has an RV card that extends a 12 cent discount on their cash prices; you just have to tie it to your checking account.

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    2. Faye N DaveJanuary 12, 2014 at 7:38 AM

      Thanks, appreciate the info on Pilot/Flying J.

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  6. Faye N DaveJanuary 12, 2014 at 7:26 AM

    Thanks, I'll keep Johny's in mind since we'll be there in a few months. With more power I'm not so concerned about the road grades, didn't want to overtax the gas motor we had.

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  7. SherryJanuary 12, 2014 at 9:52 AM

    Well done on the truck. Always good to have more power than you need rather than less. Now with the truck specs you are ready to look at all they have at the RV show. We never even considered a 5th wheel since I didn't want to have to use a big truck as our travel around vehicle but lots of folks wouldn't have it any other way. So nice that there are so many different ways to go and so many choices. You are going to have a great time at the show!!

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  8. Mike and TerriJanuary 13, 2014 at 10:25 PM

    Congratulations -- nice looking truck! Can't wait to see what might be next!

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